This New Robinhood Update Is Bigger Than It Seems
TL;DR
Robinhood opened up trading to all 50 US states, so we now have an app with ~23M funded users, with a clear intent to invest, who now have a familiar, low friction way to invest in crypto.
Full Story
Right, so Robinhood just opened up crypto trading on its app to all 50 US states (plus Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands).
We know, we know — total snooze fest!
But there’s insight to be found here…
You know those ‘Round up for charity?’ prompts you see at the supermarket?
In 2016, only 16% of charity campaigns used them. By 2022, 67% of all major charitable drives were using them, and in that year, those ~5-10c round up donations raised $749M dollars!
They work so well because:
They take technology/processes that consumers are already very familiar with (paying electronically at retail locations)
Interact with them at their point of ‘peak intention’ (the intention being: to pay for something)
They lower friction and make the decision easy, by making a small ask (1-99c donation)
Robinhood now hits those same points for retail crypto investors, across the US.
Cause here’s the thing:
Most retail investors use Robinhood to invest (because it’s easy to use, and takes no fees). When they use the app — their intention is typically: find opportunities and invest.
So we now have an app with roughly 23M funded users, with a clear intent to invest, who now have a familiar, low friction way to invest in crypto.
(No new interface to learn, no seed phrases to write down, no googling ‘what is a crypto wallet and why do I need one?’).